James Nichols
Whenever a name like Mathew Barzal pops up in the rumor mill, you sit up in your chair and you listen. However, does it make sense for Sunny Mehta to pursue Barzal in a New Jersey Devils trade?
The Islanders are apparently shopping Barzal around, according to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen, as they try to shake up their roster and find some financial breathing room after falling flat last season.
For the Devils, this might look like an intriguing chance to grab a skilled forward from down the train tracks of the Long Island railroad. After all, the Devils need a top-six winger to play alongside Jack Hughes, and although Barzal is a natural center, he’s made the transition to the wing ever since the arrival of Bo Horvat.
Barzal remains a thrilling player at 29. He’s got that quick-twitch skating, the kind that lets him slice through ice and create chances out of nothing. In fact, it’s should be familiar to Devils fans in the way they watch Jack skate night in and night out.
He has hands in tight spaces and the ability to thread passes through crowds make him one of the better setup guys in the league. Last season he put up around 72 points (19 goals, 53 assists)—which is respectable production, but perhaps a bit underwhelming for a player with his skillset.
Barzal’s never been much of a pure goal scorer, however. He lives on assists, averaging 20 goals per season over nine years.
Instead, he’s the guy who makes everyone else dangerous.
That’s exactly the problem for the Devils.
Jack and already serves as the facilitator for the offense with mezmerizing speed and creativity. Jesper Bratt plays a similar game on the wing—blazing through zones, distributing the puck at elite levels, and turning transitions into scoring opportunities.
Both thrive in open ice and excel at the same things Barzal does: carrying the puck, finding seams, and dictating play with skill rather than brute force.
Unfortunately, adding Barzal wouldn’t add a new dimension to the top-six. It would just pile on more of the same—three dynamic puck-handlers who prefer the pretty play over crashing the net or unloading heavy shots.
You can already picture the issues. Who would score the goals?
The top line could get bogged down with too many cooks in the kitchen with everyone looking to make the extra pass instead of shooting.
In the playoffs, where games tighten up and you need guys who can bang in ugly goals or win battles down low. The hypothetical Barzal add is the kind of redundancy that becomes a real liability.
The Devils have the skill and the speed. It gets them in the door but hasn’t been enough to push through.
Instead, what the team actually needs is a legitimate first-line finisher on the wing. Someone who can cash in on all the chances Hughes and Bratt create.
Again, whereas Barzal is elite, he’s not the finisher the Devils are looking for.
That’s the missing piece. Not another playmaker to clog up decision-making in the offensive zone, but a guy who makes the existing talent more lethal. The Devils have the facilitators. Now they need the trigger men.
Could Barzal essentially take over the role and move Jack to the wing? He is a former 40-plus-goal scorer and—if healthy—would have finished each of his sub-30-goal seasons over that plateau if health persisted. Barzal would even provide the Devils with Jack insurance in the case of an injury.
However, there’s little reason to believe Jack would make a permanent move to the wing. And said inasurance could come from another elite top-six winger.
From a cap and roster standpoint, taking on Barzal’s long-term deal at $9.15 million per year would tie up significant money in a player whose prime years are starting to wind down. And although the Devils have assets to use, they’re not quite as expendable as they once were.
Mehta instead needs to be smart with his assets and use them in the right areas. He should be looking at the Jason Robertson‘s and Jordan Kyrou’s on the market.
This summer is about smart, targeted improvements.
Barzal is a great hockey player, just not the right one for this group. Let the noise from the Islanders’ situation pass by and go chase the kind of winger who can actually put pucks in the net when it matters most.
And, not for nothing, but are the Islanders really shopping Barzal? It makes little sense to me given that the Islanders were at their best when he and Matthew Schaefer were on the ice.
I don’t see the fire behind this smoke.
